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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687273">Behind the Mask, Exploring the Hero of the Lands</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnstoppableLinda/pseuds/UnstoppableLinda'>UnstoppableLinda</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Link, Hero of the Lands [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda &amp; Related Fandoms, linked universe au - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Legend of Zelda - Freeform, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Mentions of Violence, Parent Time (Linked Universe), Time (Linked Universe) is a Good Parent, Will Add More Later, Zelda - Freeform, botw, btw this is mostly gonna be oneshots with a very loose story structure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:47:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,735</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687273</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnstoppableLinda/pseuds/UnstoppableLinda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow Land as she joins up with the LU crew and as the boys learn more about her, they learn that she wears more than one type of mask.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Link, Hero of the Lands [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632013</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Intro: A Plan is Set in Motion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>To say that Linkalia was annoyed was an understatement. She had spent the last three weeks battling pirates who had taken up residence on Eventide. A task that had cost her not only time and resources but 13 of her men as well.</p><p>The long battle had exhausted her, not only physically but mentally as well. In fact, whenever she closed her eyes, she swore that she could still hear the clash of swords and the loud boom of cannon fire. </p><p>But, when she opened her eyes she would see that the only opponent left before her, was the massive stack of paperwork that domineered over her upon her desk. </p><p>All she wanted to do was teleport to Zora's Domain for some private time with Remi and Andrea, and maybe even a spa visit. First, she had office work to attend to.</p><p>It took her several hours, more than a few pens chucked at the wall and some light screaming, but she had finally finished filling out and submitting the paperwork regarding the pirates through her slate, allocating the funds for the families of the 13 fallen soldiers, and writing condolence letters with promises to attend funerals and memorial services.</p><p>Barely able to keep her eyes open, the blonde princess clumsily scrolled through her list of teleport options, finger hovering over the blue dot that represented Zora’s Domain. </p><p>Only to be interrupted by her personal slate vibrating across the desk, the obnoxious tone that screeched about “big booty hoes” indicating that it was her twin, Zelda, calling her.<br/>
Sighing, regret filled her because while she just wanted to take a break for once, she still had a job to do.</p><p>So Link answered the call.</p><p>“What now?” she asked, the annoyance clear in her voice and eyes, the bright green dulled from the events of the past three weeks.</p><p>“I hate to send you back out,” began Zelda, exhaustion clear in her voice as well,” but, we just received a signal from Statham County that matches the Hero of the Wild’s slate. There have been no reported thefts from the Central Museum, but in this case-”</p><p>“It’s better safe than sorry,” finished Link, her annoyance and exhaustion replaced with rage. “I’ll retrieve the slate and the thief. Can’t be too hard, you’d have to be a darned fool to even attempt to use such an old model.”</p><p>Zelda chuckled in agreement “Good to know, just be careful,” she warned, “I’m sending you the coordinates of the last ping now.”</p><p>Link grunted out an agreement at that, then bid her sister well before ending the call. She had a thief to catch.</p><p>Cracking her neck as she stood, Link grabbed a stamina potion from her “work” slate, chugging the green sludge in one go. Revitalized and thoroughly distracted with a mission, she selected her favourite armor set with a practiced ease from the larger slate and set her teleport location to a small shrine just outside Statham County, roughly 300 meters from the last location of the stolen artifact. She slid the smaller slate into a hidden pocket behind the war fan attached to her hip and the larger one into its slot on her belt, just in time as she broke apart into fragments of blue light. </p><p>The second the blue strands of light strung back together to form Linkalia, she gathered her magic, the energy buzzing at her fingertips, and jumped off the cliff the shrine resided on. </p><p>The wind ripped through her hair as she fell, threatening to take it out of the ponytail she had clipped it into, but this did not bother her at all. She relished this feeling, this absolute freedom as she approached the ground at rapid speed. </p><p>Seconds away from going splat she activated her favorite spell and felt it take hold over her. </p><p>Her arms and fingers turned into powerful wings, her torso shrinking as did her legs, her hair slowly replaced by a brilliant plume of blonde feathers, and a beak grew where her mouth was. </p><p>Free and powerful, she let out the signature screech of a hawk and pulled up from her dive, the speed boost given to her ensuring that she would reach her destination in record time, the journey would take her 18 seconds at most.</p><p>Once she spotted the suspects, Link swooped down and landed on a branch that stuck out of the cliff wall, high enough so they wouldn’t see her, but low enough that she could still watch them as she assessed her opponents, who were currently laying flat on the ground groaning.</p><p>She counted six teenagers and three adults, the oldest looking as if he was in his early 30’s and the youngest looking barely over the age of 13. A thought that angered her even more, endangering a child?! Surely these scoundrels had to have been hired by some of the lowest of the low. </p><p>She also took note of their clothes which struck her as especially odd, few of them wore any armor at all, a rare occurrence for even the most foolhardy of travellers, much less thieves.<br/>
Their clothes also resembled those worn by the hicks in the farthest boonies of Hyrule, where few towns had electricity and monsters rarely even bothered to attack, so few monsters attacked there that it had the lowest military presence in all of the country and as result weapons were rarely sold or produced there.<br/>
She shook her head, where they were from did not matter. What did matter was that the one who held the Slate also appeared to have stolen the tunic of the Hero of the Wild.<br/>
The anger inside of her turned to a burning rage, as she resisted every urge to fly down and begin tearing at the wretched thief with her talons, how dare he!<br/>
How dare he desecrate not only the sacred tool that had aided the hero to victory but also steal the clothes off of the corpse of her ancestor!</p><p>However, she knew she had to be smart, she was outnumbered and the stamina potion had only restored some of her energy. If she flew in and started attacking now, she'd be at a huge disadvantage, not only that she’d risk the life of the young teen. If she was going to do this she had to be smart, she had to work with what she had.</p><p>She played out scenario after scenario in her head before deciding on the perfect one, a small smirk pulled at the corners of her beak. She pushed off the branch, flying up and around the cliff wall, landing a sizeable distance away on the thing path between two of the giant cliff walls, and turned back into her normal form.</p><p>Chuckling to herself she whistled, summoning her familiar, a small black dog with a big secret, Mr Cuddles. Then with a flick of her wrist, she opened her personal slate and pulled forth her favourite disguise mask and knelt down so the small dog could hear her whispered plan. She whispered her plan quickly to the faithful spirit, his bark a sound of approval, and placed the mask upon her face. In a flash her armor was replaced by common travellers clothes, her royal sword now a simple dagger, and the housing of her shield barely better than a plank of wood with a metal lining. However, the biggest change happened to her, her long blonde hair was now short and red, her shining green eyes now a deep brown, and her toned warrior's body was now taller and skinnier. </p><p>With a final wink to Mr.Cuddles, she set her plan into motion.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The First Mask Comes Off</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The dizziness that came from switching worlds was not a new occurrence to Wind, yet it still managed to catch him by surprise each time. One second he was parrying against a blue bokoblin, getting ready to unleash his fury on the monster. Lightning crashing down around him and rain beating down at his back. </p>
<p>The next he was lying flat on his ass, the world spinning around him as he and the other eight incarnations were being yeeted across both time and space. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus hard enough to reset his brain. When he opened them, the only thing he saw above him was the blue sky and an oddly colored hawk flying overhead. Holding his head, he slowly got up, looking around as the other Links dealt with the side effects of switching.</p>
<p>It took a few minutes but soon everyone was up on their feet, a few still dizzy and slightly dazed, but still awake and alive. </p>
<p>Now came the fun part.</p>
<p>Figuring out just whose Hyrule they were in.</p>
<p>Wind immediately knew it wasn't his because of the lack of a brilliant blue ocean surrounding them on all sides.</p>
<p>"Does anyone recognize this place?' questioned their leader, Time’s hand gripped the hilt of his Biggoron sword as he struggled to steady himself.</p>
<p>"Nope," answered Wind, an answer that was then repeated back to Time by every Hero but Wild.</p>
<p>An air of frustration radiated from Wild as he fiddled with his slate, seemingly unaware of everything around him, before a light nudge from Twilight brought him back to reality.</p>
<p>"I don't think this is my Hyrule, I have a connection but my map is fuzzy, and I don't recognize the few names I can make out."</p>
<p>Time sighed, the realization that yet another Hero would be joining them dawning on him. He had just begun to give out the normal orders for the group to divide and conquer in order to find the Hero, when a small black dog ran up to the group, yipping happily as it jumped at his feet<br/>
.<br/>
"Mr.Cuddles! Come back!" </p>
<p>Scooping up "Mr.Cuddles", Time watched as a red-headed woman ran towards them at full tilt, barely avoiding running smack into Twilight.</p>
<p>"Oh thank the Goddesses! You found him!" she said, sighing in relief, "My name is Ally and how can I ever repay you?"</p>
<p>"We'd just like directions to the next town and you can call me Time," said Time as he handed over the wiggling dog. </p>
<p>"Why do you need directions? Unless!" she gasped, "Is your slate malfunctioning? I've heard that after that last software update, a few slates maps were glitching out, so in that case, I'll gladly lead you into town!" she exclaimed happily, oblivious to the look of confusion that overtook the Links.</p>
<p>"We'd also like to know if you know if anyone goes by the name of Link," Hyrule peeped from beside Legend.</p>
<p>"Link? Oh, you mean the Hero! I don’t know her, but I know of her, everyone does! When we get into town you all can go to the Mayor and send in a report if you need her for anything," she paused for a moment before bringing her hand up beside her mouth as if she was about to reveal a secret," Although, just between you and me, I've heard she can be really moody."</p>
<p>With that last word she turned and began to walk, the group of assorted heroes following her.</p>
<p>That is until the world spun again and everything went black.</p>
<h3></h3><p> </p>
<p>The plan was going perfectly, a rare but pleasant occurrence. None of them betrayed any feelings of shock until she brought up modern technology, not entirely unsurprising considering they were most likely from the boonies. </p>
<p>Though it was suspicious that they had such plentiful and well-made weapons and armor, in fact, one of their swords bared a strong resemblance to the Master Sword buried deep in her slate. Even more, they were actively looking for her too, but didn't know who she was. </p>
<p>Everyone knew who she was, her mother insured to always introduce her with her full title during every public appearance, despite her own protests. On top of that, a few of them had strange, bordering on dark magical signatures. Something that put her on her toes, and rubbed every ounce of her the wrong way.</p>
<p>No, she reprimanded herself, focus on the mission at hand. </p>
<p>So, Link decided it best to ignore her own confusion for now and handle the questions for when the men following her were in custody.</p>
<p> Now all she had to do was lead them into the crevasse, where they would be forced to come at her one at a time, rip off her mask, and whistle for Mr Cuddles to drop his glamour. She smirked inwardly, she couldn't wait to see the look of shock when they realized the tiny puppy was actually a horse-sized magic wolf, or that the helpless traveller girl was their Princess. </p>
<p>Just 20 more feet and she could rain down vengeance.</p>
<p>20 more feet and these thieves would be in jail.</p>
<p>20 more feet and she could finally, finally take a quick vacation.</p>
<p>Then the world turned dark and spun, she felt Mr.Cuddles presence vanish from her arms. No, she thought to herself, she knew this feeling, but that quest was done, over with, heck it’d been over a decade since she last felt the world warp around her like this. </p>
<p>Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong. She reached for her sword, trying to anchor herself to her world, but her movements were slow and sluggish. The world faded around her as her mind began to slip, the exhaustion she already felt now laid upon her like a metal blanket, she was so tired. Unable to fight it, she succumbed and passed out. Unwillingly transported from her world for the first time since she was 11.</p>
<p>She half expected to be back on that beach when she came to, but no she was in a forest. Pushing herself off the forest floor, she inspected her surroundings and she saw that not only was Mr.Cuddles indeed gone but that the men who had been following her had shared her fate as well. The only one still standing was the one who had caught Mr.Cuddles, his one eye now staring down at her. Not wasting a moment, she tackled him, her left hand flying to unsheathe her dagger.</p>
<p>"So I take it that you were the Hero?" Time's face was calm, void of anger or hostility, an odd reaction for someone whose face was inches away from a blade.</p>
<p>"Yes, and what of it?!" she spat back, narrowing her eyes at him, the sharp <i>shing<i> of his companions’ swords causing her ears to perk up.</i></i></p><p>
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<p>"So am I, we all are, some odd force has been sending us to each others' lands, all we know is we only switch out at random or when we find the Hero or the Link of that world."</p>
<p>She read his face, looking for some sign of deceit and when she found none, she sent out a small undetectable truth spell as well.</p>
<p>Only when the spell came back positive did she sheath her weapon and let him up. </p>
<p>"Fine," she conceded, "you caught me." </p>
<p>She sheathed her dagger and in one fluid motion reached up and pulled the mask off her face, her normal appearance returning as all but Time gasped in shock<br/>
.<br/>
She held out her hand in greeting, "Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Link, Hero of the Lands and if history is correct, then am I right in assuming that everyone else here is named Link?"</p>
<p>Intentionally she left out her other titles, if they didn’t know she was a princess already, they didn’t need to know now. The knowledge would undoubtedly bring more trouble than good. </p>
<p>"You are," he confirmed as he shook her hand, "we all just go by our titles here."</p>
<p>"Good, then call me Land."</p>
<p>"You're taking this a lot better than I did," spoke up the "thief" who she now recognized as the Hero of the Wild, a bubble of excitement at working alongside such a legendary hero built inside of her, barely hidden behind a coy smile.</p>
<p>"Honestly this isn't even in my top ten weirdest experiences," she chuckled and began to talk and learn about each of her incarnations.</p>
<p>She sighed to herself as she thought, "I really should've known better than to think I'd ever get a break after all the work of a hero is never done."</p>
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